Talk:Minsk
During Boris Gribkov's flight to bomb Bordeaux, his bomber flew over Minsk and he noted one A-bomb had hit it. I skimmed but couldn't find any references other than the conventional bombing. No Radio Moscow announcements or anything. Is this an inconsistency or was it hit at the same time as Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev and not mentioned i.e. a deliberate choice by Turtledove to demonstrate the secretiveness of the Soviet union? ML4E (talk) 00:07, January 20, 2016 (UTC) :I suspect it's an error on HT's part. Stalin's pretty upfront about what's getting hit, for the propaganda value if nothing else. I'm not sure why the USSR would suddenly downplay Minsk. That having been said, it's one of the most "fixable" errors in the HT canon. Presumably, it was hit in the same round as Moscow, Leningrad, etc. TR (talk) 00:19, January 20, 2016 (UTC) ::Yeah, if Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev all got hit at once, it would be easy to overlook a fourth city. Turtle Fan (talk) 02:32, January 20, 2016 (UTC) Having gone over the sections with Radio Moscow and the indications of cities being A-bombed, I am thinking it was deliberate on Turtledove's part. Radio Moscow reports on conventional explosive bombings of various Soviet cities but there doesn't seem to be reports of nuclear attacks on specific sites. Gribkov hears of the Far East cities from the Stalin's captain. Then Radio Moscow goes off the air and comes back a few hours later. Stalin comes on to say the Americans had killed millions of Soviets and tried to kill him but failed. The implication is that Moscow had been hit and a later POV by Shevchenko has him wondering about the change in announcers implying nothing was reported about which cities were hit. He personally witnessed Kiev being hit so we know about that but not via official reports. Later, Gribkov and his crew travel to Leningrad by air and see the damage for themselves, both there and Moscow. Zorin sadly says the Americans had hit the hero city and Gribkov asked if he was surprised. Zorin says no but he was disappointed. The question of surprise makes no sense if it had been announced on Radio Moscow suggesting it hadn't. An finally, we later learn about Minsk from Gribkov's POV. ML4E (talk) :That's a pretty convincing argument. As I think about it, Stalin would want to keep quiet about the fact that at this stage, the US is hitting Soviet territory with comparative impunity, whereas the Soviets had their big round of bombings of the US, but have since been reduced to using freighters in the canals and a-bombing...France. Now, there is certainly strategic value in those targets, but the Soviets certainly aren't matching the US the way the were in the beginning. That would certainly raise questions about the actual arsenal in the minds of the average Soviet citizen. So lying about the number of a-bombings in Soviet territory makes a certain sense. ::Yeah, the obvious way to retaliate for the losses of those cities is to hit the Eastern Seaboard, especially New York and Washington. But the Red Air Force can't even make the attempt, or at best, can't risk the consequences (getting shot down, losing the precious bombs with nothing to show for them). Turtle Fan (talk) 23:50, January 20, 2016 (UTC) :At a minimum, I don't think we should call it an inconsistency. TR (talk) 20:15, January 20, 2016 (UTC) ::Agreed. Turtle Fan (talk) 23:50, January 20, 2016 (UTC)